The West Elm hotel at Woodward Avenue and Eliot Street is expected to have approximately 130 rooms opening in 2020.

Hotel wave

In the last several years, hotel developments in Detroit have been increasing at a steady clip in an emerging hospitality market, including:

West Elm hotel, 130 rooms

Shinola Hotel, 130 rooms

The Siren Hotel, 98 rooms

The Element Detroit at the Metropolitan Building, 110 rooms

Boutique hotel at 640 Temple, 100 rooms

Crowne Plaza Downtown Detroit Riverfront second tower, 498 rooms

Book Tower, 200 rooms

Two District Detroit hotels, unknown number of rooms

Aloft Hotel, 136 rooms — opened 2014

The Foundation Hotel, 100 rooms — opened 2017

Construction on the planned West Elm hotel in Detroit is expected to begin next year at a new site on Woodward Avenue and be complete by 2020.

The boutique hotel by the Brooklyn-based furniture brand is the latest to come into clearer view, following others scattered throughout the greater downtown area.

Detroit-based developer The Roxbury Group has entered into an agreement to develop the approximately 130-room hotel at Woodward and Eliot Street on the approximately 7-acre development site known as South of Mack Avenue, or SOMA, across from Whole Foods. David Di Rita, principal of Roxbury Group, said the hotel market in and around downtown "remains very underserved on various product types down the chain."

"We are bullish on hospitality in Detroit," he said. "We were really blown away when we met with their team at their Brooklyn headquarters. What's fantastic about is that they put together a management group in West Elm with a phenomenal background and experience nationally."

The Nyman family owns the site immediately north of Wayne State University's Bonstelle Theatre, and Roxbury Group has signed a long-term ground lease for the property, Di Rita said. Roxbury is "in discussions with Wayne State to potentially incorporate a restored Bonstelle Theatre into the overall plan," a news release says.

Contractors for the project have not yet been selected, although Detroit-based architecture firm Hamilton Anderson Associates is doing preliminary work.

David Bowd, principal of West Elm Hotels, said in the release that the company "will offer local residents and neighbors an opportunity to learn the facets of the hospitality industry through a 10-week, 25-hour immersive course."

"Part of our commitment to Detroit is to foster relationships with partners who share our vision and values of supporting the surrounding community," he said.

Di Rita said he anticipates the hotel to employ between 50 and 100 full-time workers.

The West Elm hotel concept was announced in 2016. At the time, it was part of a planned $60 million mixed-use development announced in 2013 at the northeast corner of Cass Avenue and Canfield Street being developed by Detroit-based Broder & Sachse Real Estate Services Inc. on WSU land. It's not known what happened to the West Elm/Broder & Sachse negotiations.

West Elm, a division of San Francisco-based Williams-Sonoma Inc., is working on hotels in a half-dozen markets, including Detroit.

In the last several years, hotel developments in Detroit have been increasing at a steady clip in an emerging hospitality market. Between hotels that have opened and new ones planned, no fewer than 1,500 rooms have been completed or are in the works.

Also planned are a 28-story second tower for the Crowne Plaza Downtown Detroit Riverfront and a 100-room boutique hotel in a vacant building at 640 Temple Street. At least one large hotel is also planned in the Ilitch family's District Detroit development across from Little Caesars Arena, with one also being considered near Hockeytown Cafe.